“People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want and if they can’t find them, make them.” - George Bernard Shaw
Create Your Budget
The cash flow plan or budget is the best way to change your circumstances for the better. By knowing exactly what is coming as income and telling your money where to go during the month, you decide where your income goes by spending on paper, first, before you begin each month. Do this without the outside pressure from creditors or marketing experts using commercials. Make a situation for yourself where you are in control of the spending and you can set your own spending priorities.
Prioritizing Your Budget
Your cash flow plan should have savings at the top. If you don’t save money, there isn’t anyone else out there that will do it for you. Your next priorities are food, shelter, utilities, basic transportation and basic clothing. Having these necessities covered in your plan will allow you to work through your debt from a position of strength. With your basic necessities covered, you can prioritize paying off of your debts. List them from smallest amount owed to the largest amount owed and then pay the minimum payments for all of them. If you have any extra money, apply it to the smallest debt to pay it off the fastest. With the smallest paid off you can take its payment and any other extra income that you can make and apply it to the next debt payment.
Get Up and Look For a Better Life
You are in control of your life. Married couples must talk together about your hopes, dreams and goals for your family. Getting on a plan and paying off debt is a means to those goals. But you have to know WHY you are sacrificing your life-style and living differently than the rest of society. You have to know where you are pointed and have a plan to make your dreams a reality.
The best way to have a great outlook and future in your money management is to create it
By having a budget, prioritizing your spending and working a debt payment plan to accomplish your goals and dreams you will change your circumstances to fit your life, without living a life of circumstances dragging you down. Get off your couch, turn off your television and take control of your life and get pointed in the right direction today.
Tim and Kathryn Gerken are Financial Coaches in Newcastle, WA. They serve their community in the greater Seattle area by teaching classes and speaking for groups as well as coaching.
The downturn in our economy over the last few years has amplified the personal finance situations of the people of this nation. It has divided us into two categories: the stable and the unstable. Some American households have upwards of 9 credit cards according to a 2010 
Many people have already filed their Federal Income Tax Return for 2011. Many more are in the process of filing. Are you getting a refund this year? If you are, you can track your refund 
Did you find that when you put your income on a budget and spent it on paper before the month began that you had more expenses than income?
For a week, the local weather forecasters were hyping what was threatening to be the worst snowstorm in the Seattle area in at least a decade if not longer. Names like “Snowmageddon” and “Snowpocalypse” were bandied about as the front of the storm approached in seeming slow motion. The forecasters were right and the storm developed pretty much as they predicted. Schools closed, the streets covered with snow. At one point there were more than 200,000 people without power. The governor declared a state of “emergency”.
Thank you to the families that we have worked with this year! We have been privledged to serve you both through our coaching and through the Financial Peace University classes that we have facilitated. We hope that your lives have been changed for the better. Working with each of you has changed our lives as well. One of the many things that we have observed this year is that a budget or spending plan is only one part of a healthy financial plan. It is similar to a three ring circus. You have to have all three rings operating at once in order to have a great plan. Let’s look at these rings.
The last thing most people want to think about during the end of year holidays is taxes. It is, however, important to do so. There are a couple of things you should consider at the end of the year to put yourself in a positive situation with regard to this year’s taxes and set you up for no surprises next year. All of these activities require that you be able to reasonably accurately estimate what your tax bill will be come April.
At GerkenFinancialCoaching.com we have many new visitors each day looking at our website and the services we offer. The first words out of many potential client’s mouths when they contact us is, “how much do your services cost?” This is always a difficult question for us. We started Gerken Financial Coaching after completing Dave Ramsey’s Counselor Training Program*. We want to be able to help as many people as possible in our community become stronger managers of their assets. One point that we learned from Dave is that if clients are not willing to sacrifice to make a healthy change then coaching most likely will not work for them. This is true whether is it s a 13 week class of Financial Peace University, where the participants pay $100 for a church facilitated class, or for a 3-6 month coaching relationship. The consumers of these services need to perceive value for the cost before they are willing to sacrifice to change their situation. We provide that value.
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